


The Lonely Slytherin

by Mollz



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Accusations of Racism, Canon Compliant, Gen, House Bigotry, No Cursed Child Spoilers, No Fantastic Beast Spoilers, Original Character-centric, Post-Canon, Post-War, Post-War Slytherin Awkwardness, Pre-Epilogue, Redeeming Slytherins, Sorting Ceremony, Sorting Hat - Freeform, Troubled Hogwarts
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-13
Updated: 2016-12-19
Packaged: 2018-09-08 07:40:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8836057
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mollz/pseuds/Mollz
Summary: May 2nd: Lord Voldemort is vanquished. September 1st: A new school year begins at Hogwarts. 4 months isn't even long enough to finish rebuilding the castle, much less grieve for those lost. Students and Teachers alike return to the school still angry and upset, and with Voldemort gone there's only one easy target for blame: Slytherin House. Most first-years beg the hat for another house, and the hat obliges. But one girl is too much of a Slytherin to give up the chance to shape a whole house's future. Can she change the course of Slytherin House? Can she find something redeemable in an old man's racist partitions? Or does the whole system just need to be burned to the ground and replaced? This is the story of the only person sorted into Slytherin the year after the war ended.





	1. HatStall

Victoria Williams was going to be a Ravenclaw. She had been assured of this her entire life, and had no reason to doubt it. Her mother was a Ravenclaw. Her father was a Ravenclaw. It was rumored that one of her great ancestors was _the_ Rowena Ravenclaw. And family besides, she had a voracious appetite for reading, an insatiable curiosity about everything, and a vocabulary that sometimes seemed too big for an eleven year old girl.

To disclose the full truth, being anything had been a struggle. With the dark lord vanquished on the second of May, Victoria had found herself with only four months to convince her parents it was safe for her to start her first year of school. And it had taken every tactic, every trick, and almost every single day of that four months before they relented.

“Be a good little Ravenclaw.” Her mother had urged her tearfully from the platform. And she had dutifully promised that she would.

* * *

 

With a book in her hands, the train ride seemed to take no time at all. She hadn’t even finished reading by the time they arrived. A large bearded man led them across the lake. Her parents had warned her about this. Before long, Hogwarts was in view.

The castle bore its scars even months after the battle. The tallest tower had been beheaded, left with only a simply shielding charm to keep the rain out of the staircase. There were places where the rebuilding efforts had required new bricks, where the old ones were too shattered to come back together; a few of those discolored spots could be seen on almost every wall. What should have been pure wonder was tempered by the thought of what had been done here, and what had been lost. Some morbid cloud hung over the entrance, reminding them all that evil was only so recently gone. The other students whispered amongst each other as they were led inside. It didn’t feel appropriate to speak with any volume.

A kind-looking woman wearing a nursing uniform met them at the doors. She introduced herself as Madame Pomfrey and immediately began to lead them somewhere else. She didn’t say much, just ushered them forward with a few “Just around this corner”s and “Not far”s. They came to an enormous set of double doors.

“This is the Great Hall.” She said. “This is where you’ll eat all your meals. The Sorting’s about to start--don’t worry, the hat will explain everything.” She waved her wand, and the doors opened.

Victoria stared. The hall was bathed in a warm golden glow. It looked inviting. Beyond the doors, there were five tables. One at the far end, decorated in white, held all the teachers and staff. In front of it were the other four, decorated in the various house colors. Gryffindor, resplendent in red and gold tinsel, was clearly the most packed table in the room. Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw were modestly seated, but they had lost more than a few students to the war or the concern of their parents.

These losses paled in comparison to Slytherin, however. Slytherin was nearly bare. Instead of the finery of the other tables, Slytherin was decorated with a simple green tablecloth. The students who sat at the Slytherin table could have fit at a table one quarter the size. They all had their heads bowed. It gave Victoria chills for reasons she couldn’t immediately interpret.

Madame Pomfrey led them deep into the room, right in front of the teachers’ table. The sorting hat was sitting on its’ stool, seemingly sleeping. Madame Pomfrey prodded it, and it sprang to life. Victoria heard one of the other children gasp. Probably a muggleborn.

Madame Pomfrey lined them up in order of name, which of course left Victoria last. At least there were only about a dozen students to sort.

The song began abruptly and without much fanfare.

_Another year has come and gone_

_The last one took a toll_

_I must admit I took a hit_

_But let me state my goal_

 

_I am the Sorting Hat_

_And I look inside your mind_

_Then sort you into one of four_

_Based on what I can find_

 

_If you act when others talk_

_And fight when odds are low_

_Then I’ll be sure to tell you_

_Gryffindor is where you go_

 

_If you’re hardworking, patient,_

_Have a heart that’s good and true,_

_Then step right up and we can make_

_A Hufflepuff of you_

 

_If information’s what you seek,_

_And you enjoy a test,_

_Then come up here and you will find_

_That Ravenclaw is best_

 

_If instead-_

But the sound of the hat singing was drowned out by a sudden chorus of boos from the Gryffindor table. The hat valiantly tried to continue, but it could not compete with a hundred teenagers screaming. It closed its mouth and waited until the teachers had managed to quiet everyone down.

The end of the song seemed to be hollow and without feeling. Victoria almost felt bad for the tattered thing.

 

_No matter where you think you go_

_I’ll place you fair and square_

_And if you ask politely_

_I won’t even muss your hair!_

 

With the song finished, the sorting began. Victoria tried to take note of every student. There were so few, it would only help her to know their names and houses.

“Allen, Jacob!”--A tall, confident boy with light hair. Gryffindor.

“Barley, Oscar!”--A dark-skinned boy who looked very confused. Hufflepuff.

“Blair, Pictor!”--A girl blushing bright red under her olive skin who nearly threw the hat off her head when she was done. Ravenclaw.

“Carroll, Sebastian!”--A thin boy with glasses and acne. Ravenclaw.

“Dixon, Ava!”--A short, pale girl with several large buttons stuck to the front of her robes. Gryffindor.

“Frost, Evelyn!”--A girl with silver-blond hair who seemed to be limping slightly. Ravenclaw.

“Graham, Jesse!”--A boy with curly black hair and a nervous grin. Hufflepuff.

“Lawson, Liam!”--A boy with shoulder-length brown hair who took longer than anyone else to be sorted. Gryffindor.

“Parker, Daisy!”--A blonde girl who walked like she was on a runway. Hufflepuff.

“Roberts, Francesca!”--A small, mousy girl who tripped over her robes on the way to the stool. Gryffindor.

“Ryder, Damien!”--A dark, bored-looking boy with bags under his eyes. Ravenclaw.

“West, Chloe!”--A tall girl who actually pranced up to the hat in excitement. Hufflepuff.

And finally, she was the only one left standing.

“Williams, Victoria!”

She hurried forward, egged on by the impatient looks coming from every direction. She sat down on the stool and stuffed the hat on her head.

 _Hmm_ . A quiet voice said. _My, my, my._

“It’s Ravenclaw, right?” She asked it. “Just say it. Everybody’s waiting.”

_Hmm._

“Ravenclaw.” She said. “Don’t pretend like it’s not obvious. It’s an easy one.”

 _Child, would you like me to sort you quickly or sort you well?_ The hat asked, sounding slightly perturbed.

She felt mollified. “Well.” She mumbled.

_I should hope so. Now...there are some questions I must ask you._

Questions? She’d never heard anything about this being a test. Her hands fidgeted in her lap. “Okay.” She said, warily.

_Can you be brave?_

“Brave?” Her brow furrowed. “You want to put me in Gryffindor?”

_Not Gryffindor, no. Can you be brave?_

“Bravery is a Gryffindor trait.” She countered. “Why would you be asking about bravery if you didn’t want to put me in Gryffindor?”

_Please answer the question._

“I’m not going to answer questions if I don’t know why you’re asking.” She said. “I have to know the...the context, I can’t just-”

_Do you believe I’m trying to trick you?_

“No!” She said quickly, then backtracked. “Well. I don’t know. I don’t know you.”

There was a long silence and a soft sigh.

 _Ravenclaw is not the house where you fit best._ The hat told her. _But-_

“What?” She felt dizzy. “How am I not-”

_But the alternative-_

“I’m very smart.” She told the hat angrily. “Do you think I’m not smart enough? I’m smart enough to be a Ravenclaw.”

 _BE QUIET._ The hat rumbled. She felt shivers roll down her spine and let the hat do the talking.

 _You would be perfectly well suited to Ravenclaw._ _But there is another house where your skills could bring you to true greatness. It would be difficult. It would take courage._

“What kind of greatness?” Victoria asked slowly. Her mouth was dry. The hairs on the back of her neck tingled.

_You could be in history books. If you applied yourself, your actions would help students at this school for generations to come. But it would be a lonely road. You would face hardship. I will not force this path on you. It is only yours if you choose it._

“You haven’t even told me what it is, yet.” Victoria said. “I can’t choose something if I don’t know what it is.”

_Can you be brave?_

“This is ridiculous!” Victoria told it, frustrated. “Okay, look, I’ll use process of elimination. It’s an alternative to Ravenclaw, so it can’t be Ravenclaw. You said it isn’t Gryffindor. So that only leaves Hufflepuff and Slytherin. What kind of greatness am I supposed to achieve in Hufflepuff?”

The hat was silent.

She felt tears pinprick at the corners of her eyes as she understood. “Slytherin?” She was aghast. “You think I belong in Slytherin?”

 _I rarely see students who fit Salazaar’s profile so exactly_. The hat sounded apologetic now, which just made her angry.

“I’m not evil!” She told it vehemently. “I care about people! I don’t hate muggles and muggle borns!”

_Being evil is not a prerequisite for being a Slytherin. Let me-_

“I don’t want to hear this.” She snapped.

 _LET ME SPEAK._ The hat shouted in her ear, and she jumped. Her ears rang painfully.

 _Slytherins are determined._ The hat said, much softer. _They continue working towards their goals until they succeed or are made wholly impossible. Are you determined? Or did your parents decide of their own accord to allow you to attend school this year?_

“I’m determined.” Victoria said sourly. “That doesn’t prove anything.”

_Slytherins are loyal. They take care of their friends and their families. They repay their debts and remember their allies. The Malfoys, Severus Snape, these people risked their lives to protect those they loved, while some Gryffindors have betrayed their closest friends. Are you loyal?_

“Yes.” She admitted reluctantly.

_Slytherins are cunning. They plan and strategize. They think laterally and they always think ahead. Where a Gryffindor will attack a problem head on or a Ravenclaw will use a reliable method, a Slytherin will think of new solutions and weigh all their options before striking. Are you satisfied with only having one solution to a problem?_

“Don’t be ridiculous. What if it stops working?” She asked. “What if something works even better and you don’t know it yet? I’m not the only person who likes to have backup plans.  That doesn’t mean anything.”

_Slytherins are ambitious. They are not satisfied with a small life and small goals. They believe that dying peacefully and being forgotten is a waste. They want to affect change in the world. They want the power to mold the world into one that they prefer, and whether that is good or ill depends purely on their preference. Do you wish to change the world?_

“Everyone wants to change the world.” She argued. “Everybody’s at least thought about what they’d do if they ruled the world. You’re asking leading questions.”

 _Slytherins are pureblood. And yes,_ the hat added quickly before she could interrupt, _I agree that this is a ridiculous standard. But I am a hat, and it is my job to judge by the criteria I am given. This is one of them. Are you pureblood?_

“I refuse to answer.” She said. “I will not let you take that into account.”

The hat somehow made an exasperated noise. _These are rhetorical questions._ It said. _I already know the answers. Miss Williams, you have now spent six minutes trying to convince a hat to share your point of view. You have attempted to circumvent my questions. You have attempted to strike part of the criteria entirely and thus fundamentally change the sorting system this school has had for a thousand years. Do me a service and be truthful: do you see nothing of a Slytherin in yourself?_

She felt dizzy. She gripped the stool to keep herself upright.

Cunning. Loyal. Determined. Ambitious.

Or, in more familiar terms: Clever. Helpful. Stubborn. Visionary.

She knew herself too well to deny it.

 _If you choose Slytherin, you will be the only Slytherin in your year._ The hat whispered. _It will be lonely and trying. But it will also put you in the perfect position to affect change and gain attention. As the first and only Slytherin after the war has ended, you could decide what it means to be Slytherin. You could decide the atmosphere and culture that await every Slytherin after you. So tell me, Miss Williams: would you like to be smart, or would you like to be brave?_

“Are you saying it’s stupid to take caculated risks for large rewards?” She demanded.

The hat gave a low chuckle. _Very well._

Ice shot through her chest and she panicked. “Wait wait wait, that wasn’t my ans-”

**“SLYTHERIN!”**

* * *


	2. Open and Closed

Madame Pomfrey took the hat off her head. The lights of the great hall seemed blinding, and she squinted against them. She slid off the stool. 

She couldn’t tell where the noise began. One moment there was hushed silence, and then next it seemed that everyone in the hall was booing her. The walls and floor reverberated with the deafening sound of it. 

She was frozen. She stared out at the crowd, at all the angry faces, angry at  _ her _ , and felt her stomach twist and her lungs shrink in her chest. 

“Settle down!” Madame Pomfrey called out, but it was in vain. She put her hands on Victoria’s shoulders and physically rotated her towards the Slytherin table. “There you go, dear, it’s that way, best to go take a seat.” She pushed her slightly as encouragement. Victoria stumbled forward, then slowly began walking. She felt like she was in a daze. This all felt like a bad dream. 

“Be a good little Ravenclaw! ” Her mother’s voice bounced around in her mind. This couldn’t be real. She had to go back. She had to ask them to do it again. She turned around to look, but the hat and the stool had already been taken away. She kept walking. There were plenty of empty spaces at the Slytherin table. She picked one at random. She reconsidered. She picked one where she would have her back to the wall and could see it coming if someone threw something at her. She sat. 

“SILENCE!” Headmistress McGonagall's voice rang out, clear and crisp against the torrent of hatred. The noise dropped, then dropped again. Finally it faded out.

“That is  _ enough _ .” The Headmistress said, looking sternly over her glasses at the room. “The next person who voices their disrespect in  that manner will lose their house fifteen points.”

She began to give a speech. Something noble about courage and recovering from their wounds. Victoria had a hard time paying attention. She barely dared to look up from the table. 

“The song was terrible this year.” The boy sitting next to her said quietly. 

She looked up at him. He was looking up at the Headmistress, his expression vacant and bored. He looked like he was maybe fourth year. 

He continued after a moment. “The hat really didn’t even try. That’s the worst one I’ve heard. You gotta wonder if it’s depressed, way it talks sometimes.”

“Can a hat be depressed?” Victoria asked. 

The boy shrugged. “If any hat could, it’d be that one. You should have heard what it said a couple years ago.  _ Though CONDEMNED I am to sort you, still I worry that it’s wrong.  _ Just a whole epic poem about house unity.”

The girl sitting across from Victoria piped up in a whisper. “ _ Our Hogwarts is in danger from external, deadly foes. _ Is that the one you mean?”

The boy nodded grimly. “ _ And we must unite inside her or we’ll crumble from within. I have told you, I have warned you-” _

“- _ let the sorting now begin. _ ” They finished together. 

The girl sighed. “I was tense that whole year.” She admitted. “I didn’t think it could get any worse after that.”

“That was all of us.” The boy said. He reached across the table and put his hand on the girl’s arm in comfort. They both looked down silently. 

Headmistress McGonagall continued speaking about the expectations for the students in the background. 

“Anyway.” The girl turned back to Victoria. “I’m Maybelle. This is Dennis. I’m sorry you got Slytherin.” She grimaced. “It wouldn’t be so bad except for all the bad parts.”

“God, don’t say it like that. Look at her, she’s already half out of her mind.” Dennis scolded her. He clapped Victoria on the shoulder. “Congratulations on being a Slytherin. It means you’re a leader.”

“Yeah, find somebody who’ll let you lead them now and I’ll give you their weight in gold.” Maybelle scoffed glumly. 

“Ignore her.” Dennis said. “She’s always cynical when she’s hungry.”

“What was the song last year?” Victoria asked tentatively. 

Dennis looked away sharply and grimaced. Maybelle lowered her eyes and spoke in a softer tone. 

“It refused to sort properly. It announced that anyone who put the hat on would be sorted into Hufflepuff.” 

“What?” Victoria was shocked. “What did they do? How did they sort people?”

“They just...let people pick whatever they wanted.” Maybelle said. “I remember we kind of had to…” She motioned shooing somebody away. Dennis nodded and mimed turning someone around and shoving them in the opposite direction. 

“Why?” Victoria asked. 

“Wasn’t safe.” Dennis said. “We all knew that. Wasn’t safe. We could only take people who already...knew. Everybody else…” 

“Don’t pussyfoot around it.” Maybelle said. “Slytherin house was Death Eater HQ. The Death Eaters they made teachers hung out there. Half the students had Death Eaters as parents. Some of the sixth and seventh years were Death Eaters. The other houses could speak their minds in their common rooms and dormitories, we didn’t even have that. It would have been cruel to force that on any little kid who wasn’t already indoctrinated.”

“It wasn’t that bad.” Dennis snapped. “We weren’t the victims that year, alright? It sucked, whatever, we survived. Some people  _ died _ . We had it easy.”

“Right.” Maybelle said coldly. She slid down the bench to another student and started speaking to them instead, pointedly looking away from Dennis. 

“I shouldn’t pick at scabs.” Dennis said. He looked back up at Headmistress McGonagall. “Neither should you. Call this my friendly first-year advice. Don’t talk about last year. Those scars are still open wounds.”

“Thanks for the advice.” Victoria said. She felt overwhelmed.

The Headmistress finally finished speaking. Food appeared. Victoria felt obligated to force a few bites down, but all it did was make the nausea worse. 

“Come on.” Dennis said finally. “I’ll show you where the common room is.”

The Slytherin common room was a cold, dark dungeon. Somehow, this did not raise Victoria’s spirits. 

“Fresh start.” Dennis told a wall covered in snakes, and it obligingly opened for him. 

“It changes at random.” He explained to her. “If you ever hear it make a hissing noise, that means you get to pick the new password. Then you tell everyone else. Well, the idea is that you try to hide it and make us work for it, or only give it to your friends. But that’s bullshit. Just tell everyone else.”

“Okay.”

“Girls dorms are through there.” He pointed. “I’ll be down here all night if you need me.”

“All night?” Victoria asked. 

“I’ve got a hunch about something.” He said dismissively. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Okay.” She hesitated. “Thanks.”

He nodded. 

She found her dorm. Her trunk was sitting neatly on top of a green and silver twin-sized bed. She didn’t feel tired enough for sleep, so instead she just began unpacking. When her trunk was empty, she still wasn’t tired, so she sat down to write a letter to her parents. 

_ Dear mum and dad, _ was as far as she got before she burst into tears. 

She was so monumentally stupid. The war was still recent. The wounds were still fresh. And Slytherin was the villain. How could she have let an empty promise of power blind her? How could she have even considered this? 

She belonged in Ravenclaw. She deserved a warm tower filled with books, not a cold and empty dungeon. She could still picture in her mind the crowd glaring at her, the Ravenclaws joining in with the others as they booed her mistake. It was the first day and every single person already hated her personally. Her life was ruined.

_ Dear mum and dad, _

_ I’m so sorry. _

No.

This was her pain. It was one thing to feel it, it was entirely another to show it. If she expressed openly how frightened she was, there would be consequences. She couldn’t act without thinking of the consequences. Her choices needed context. The sorting hat had derided her for that, but it was important to her. 

What is the context? She asked herself. What are the consequences?

The context was that she was a Slytherin now, and writing the letter would not magically make her a Ravenclaw. Mistake or not, her choice was final. Tomorrow, or the next day, or whenever she started feeling okay again, she would start working to better Slytherin house. She had given up everything for the opportunity to effect change. It would be a waste to squander that opportunity. It would be a fine slap in the face to that sacrifice to immediately begin lambasting Slytherin house and lamenting her place in it the first chance she got. 

The consequences were even worse. There was no good outcome of being so honest with her parents. They would worry themselves sick over her. They would try to get involved. They might even--god forbid!--try to pull her out of school. 

She had worked too hard for this. She had sacrificed too much. She had to take it seriously. 

_ Dear mum and dad, _

What would someone unconcerned about Slytherin say? She had to understand that mindset. She had to embody it. She forced a smile and put her quill to parchment.

_ Surprise! I’m in Slytherin.  _

Perfect. 

_ I know it’s not what you expected, I didn’t expect it either. I hope you’re still happy for me. That hat said I was so ambitious and stubborn that it would be a shame to put me in Ravenclaw. Don’t worry, I can be a model student no matter what house I’m in. I’m not going to stop reading books just because my room is in the dungeons.  _

She was walking a thin line between seeming unconcerned and seeming oblivious to their concerns, but she thought it would sell well enough.

_ I’ve already made two friends! _

A white lie, but she had never shied away from those.

_ I have to go to bed now, I just wanted to pop this letter off to you while it was still fresh.  _

_ Love you, _

_ Victoria _

That would do. It was appropriately calming and consoling while appearing to do neither. She’d look it over again in the morning and send it off before breakfast.

A wave of exhaustion hit her suddenly. She wiped the tear tracks from her face and changed into her pajamas. By the time she was in bed, she could barely keep her eyes open. 

**Author's Note:**

> If you notice any mistakes I made or have any suggestions, please drop me a comment! Constructive criticism is my lifeblood. 
> 
> If you want to compliment me, hey, I appreciate that too! ;)


End file.
